Fire-escape.



A. A. STINCHCOVIB.

FIRE ESCAPE.

APPLICATION FILED IAN. 5, 1914.

Patented Apr. 13, 1915.

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ALFRED A. STINCHCOMB, OF ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND.

FIRE-ESCAPE.

Application filed January 5, 1914.

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that ll, ALFRED A. STINOH- ooMe, a citizen of the United States, residing at Annapolis, in the county of Anne Arundel and State of Maryland, have invented certain new and useful lmprovements in Fire-Escapes; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

The primary object of this invention is to provide a fire escape for buildings which shall be of extremely simple construction, very efficient and practical, and which will provide a safe and rapid mode of descent from any floor of a building.

Another and more specific object of the invention is to provide a fire escape comprising a compartment formed on the exterior of a building adjacent the top thereof and having a swinging bottom or trap door, a flexible ladder secured at one end within the compartment and resting on the trap door, and means whereby the trap door may be released from any floor of the building, allowing the ladder to unfold and stretch from the compartment to the ground, whereby a safe means of escape from a building is afforded.

lWith these and other objects in view as will become more apparent as the description proceeds, the invention consists in certain novel :features of construction, combination and arrangement of parts as will be hereinafter more fully described and claimed.

For a complete understanding of my invention reference is to be had to the following description and accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a fragmentary interior View of a building equipped with my improved re escape, Fig. 2 is a vertical section taken on the plane of line 2-2 of Fig. 1, Fig. 3 is a vertical section taken on the plane of line 3-8 of Fig. 2, and Fig. 4: is a section taken on the plane of line 4 4 of Fig. 1.

Referring in detail to the drawings by numerals, 5 designates the wall of a building which is pierced by the windows 6 and which supports the joists 7, said joists projecting beyond the outer face of the wall, as clearly shown in Fig. 2.

8 designates a roof rafter and 9 a portion of a roof, which, as is clearly shown in the Specicaton of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr.. 213, 19915.

serial no. 810,400.

drawings, projects beyond the terminals of the joists. The roof 9, joists 7 and flashing 10 form a compartment 11, and in carrying out my invention close the lower end of this compartment by a trap door 12 which is hingedly secured, as indicated by the numerai 18, to the lower edge of the flashing, said door being free to swing downwardly into a vertical plane, as indicated by the dotted line in Fig. 2, when released. A flexible ladder 14e is secured at its upper end to the opposed faces of the oists 7 within the compartment 11 by means of the screw eyes 15 or other suitable fasteners and is normally retained within the compartment by means of the trap door 12. lt will be obvious that when the door is released, the ladder will unfold and extend to the ground parallel to the wall 5, so that a person may climb through the window 6 onto the ladder and thus reach the ground in safety.

The means which l have provided for normally holding the trap door 12 in a hori- Zontal plane or operative position, include a supporting block 16 which is positioned centrally within the compartment 11 upon top of the wall 5, and which is formed in its upper edge with a longitudinal groove or channel 17 having a transverse groove 18 formed in the bottom thereof adjacent the outer end. A trigger 19 is arranged within the channel 17, projects forwardly beyond the outer end of the block 16, and is provided with a transverse tooth or rib 20 which fits within the groove 18. A pair of rods 21 are connected to the inner side of the door 12 adjacent the side edges thereof, and are also connected to the trigger 19 adjacent the outer end thereof on opposite sides by means of a suitable fastener 22.

To hold the trigger set or in such a position as to support the trap door 12, l provide a locking bar 23, formed of two telescopic sections 2a and 25 which are locked against movement relative to each other by a set screw 26 which threads through the section 2a into engagement with the section The bar extends across the trigger 19 adjacent the inner end thereof, and has its terminals extended downwardly and outwardly, as indicated by the numeral 27. The outwardly extended portions act as trunnions and are received within bearing brackets 2S secured to the opposed sides of the joists 7, as shown in Fig. 1. `When the bar 23 is swung inwardly from engagement g e Y 1,135,738

with the trigger i9, the weight of the door 12 causes the same to drop kand pull the trigger from the block 16.

To permit of the bar 23 being operated from any floor of a building, I provide a pull rod 29 which extends along the inner face of the wall 5 through the horizontal partition 30. rlChe rod 29 is provided with a plurality of handles 31, one within each room, so that the rod may be easily moved longitudinally. An arm 32 is carried by the bail 23, projects inwardly at right angles thereto, and is connected tothe upper end of the pull rod 29. A contractile helical spring 33 is connected to the free end of the arm 32 and to a cross bar 34:, and serves to hold the arm 32 normally in a substantially horizontal plane, at which time the bar 23 extends over the trigger 19 and holds the same in its set position. Where the pull rod 29 passes through the room of a house, it is Y covered or protected by a casing strip 35 and the handle 31 works within boxings or housings 36 which are provided with swinging doors 37.

From the foregoing rdescription taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, it will be apparent that I have provided a very simple,practical and reliable Vfire escape for buildings, which may be released to assume an operative position from any floor of the building, and which afford a safe means of escape therefrom.

While I have shown and described the preferred embodiment of my invention, it will be understood Vvthat minor changes in construction, combination Aand arrangement of parts may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as claimed.

Having thus described Vmy invention, I claim l. In combination with a building, a trap door arranged adjacent the top thereof, a flexible-ladder secured at one end to the building near the top thereof and resting on vthe traprdoor, a trigger, a connection between said trigger and the trap door, a supporting element for the trigger, a locking bar extending over and in engagement with the trigger to hold the latter in an operative position, and means for swinging the locking bar from engagement with the trigger to release the ladder whereby the trap door may drop and release the ladder.

2. In combination with a building, a compartment formed eXteriorly thereof near the top, a trap door closing the bottom of said compartment, a flexible ladder secured at one end within the compartment and resting upon the trap door, a supporting block, a triggerarranged on the top of said block projecting forwardly beyond one end thereof, means for holding the trigger in a horizontal plane, a connection between the trigger and the trap door, whereby when the trigger is held in a horizontal plane, the trap door is held to close the compartment, and means for actuating said holding means, whereby the trap door swings downwardly and drops the ladder.

3. In combination with a building, a iire escape including an exterior compartment formed adjacent the top of the building, a trap door closing the bottom of said compartment, a ladder secured at one end within the compartment and resting in a folded position on the trap door, a trigger block supported on the wall of the building, a trigger resting on said block and projecting beyond one end thereof, a connection between the projected end of the trigger and the trap door, a swinging locking bar extending across the other end of the trigger to hold the latter in engagement with the block, a pull rod and arm connecting the pull rod with the swinging locking bar, and a spring connected to the arm to hold the locking bar normally in operative position.

In testimony whereof I aiix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

ALFRED A. STINCHCOMB.

I'Vitnesses CHARLES A. BRADY, ARTHUR B. IVHEATLEY.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for ve cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C'. 

